Cream Cheese Chocolate Chunk Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

What a name for a cookie huh? I could have shortened it, but for some reason I wanted you to know exactly everything that went into this cookie.

If you've never had this candy before you should really try it. It's super creamy and has specks for honey and almond nougat running throughout.  I chopped it up and put it into my cookies.  It was really yummy.

It's always a problem for me when I make sweets because the Mr. isn't much of a sweets person.  He's more of a pizza and beer person. So, as a way of not eating the entire batch of whatever sweet thing I have made, I take some to co-workers, but more often then not I am driving them over to my dear friend Carol's house. She's so sweet. She always likes everything I bring, and she doesn't get mad that it's always sugar I'm bringing.  It's a win-win situation really.

These cookies started out as just a regular oatmeal cookie.  I added some cinnamon for a little pizazz, and it was better, but not great yet.  So I added some chocolate chips, then decided I wanted it a bit more chunky.  So I cut up a almond nougat filled candy bar and added that in.  Oh, and don't forget the cream cheese.  These cookies are so soft, even days later. And maybe this is just me, but I feel like these cookies must be healthy, because they have oatmeal in them.  Yep. So go ahead and eat 5 or 6 for breakfast. 

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chunk Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup chocolate chips
2 Toblerone candy bars (3.5 oz. each) cut into chunks
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 cups flour
3 cups oats
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat butter, cream cheese and sugar until creamy.  Add egg and vanilla, mix well. Combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and mix well.  Add to butter mixture and blend well.  With the mixer on low, stir in the chocolate chips and Toblerone pieces, just stirring to combine.  Drop by rounded tablespoons 2" apart on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.


Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.  Leave in pan to cool for 2 minutes.  Put cookies on wire rack to finish cooking.  Store in airtight container at room temperature.  Makes 2 dozen cookies.

I'm going to have some for breakfast now.

Toasted Coconut Icebox Cake with Blueberries

When I was a little girl, I used to pretend that I was Mary Poppins. Not only did I pretend to be her, I made others pretend as well. I can remember walking around my pre-school classroom saying my name is not Joanna it's Mary Poppins! Silly I know...but I wanted so badly to jump through side-walk chalk drawings, and ride a carousel horse around a park, eat candied apples and dance with penguins in tuxedos.  Ahh the life of a child.  Where imagination is not overrated.  I miss those days.

My love for cooking stems from childhood as well.  For anyone who has read this blog for longer than 5 minutes, you know I often talk of my grandmother and how I used to stand on a kitchen chair next to her, helping her make home-made noodles. Some of my fondest memories are spent with my grandmother.  Her, and Mary Poppins.

This icebox cake is super easy, and might I add healthy. It's a light dessert, perfect for these upcoming hot summer nights.

Toasted Coconut Icebox Cake

2 sleeves graham crackers
16 ounces lite cool whip
1 cup coconut flakes, toasted
1-1/2 cups blueberries

In the bottom of a 9" spring form pan, place a layer of graham crackers.  Break into pieces in order to help them fit.  Spread 1/3 of the whipped cream over the crackers then sprinkle 1/2 cup blueberries.  Repeat 2 more times.  Once you've used all of the ingredients, sprinkle the top generously with toasted coconut.  Refrigerate overnight, and by the next morning the graham crackers will have softened into a perfect cutting consistency.  Slice and enjoy.

Cheddar Broccoli Soup

I am really not a fan of broccoli. I've tried eating it many ways...in a QUICHE, raw in a salad, stuffed with ham and Swiss cheese into pastry, and in a soup.

I think food has to be better than "just edible", and for me, broccoli is "just edible".  I don't know why I always buy it. I guess because as I'm wondering the isle of my market with a shopping cart full of ingredients to make yummy sweets, I had to throw something green and healthy in there also.

On a brighter broccoli note, cheese really does make everything taste better. So please folks, load this soup with your favorite sharp cheddar cheese.  And have lots of crusty bread on hand for dunking. Cheese and bread now that's my kind of meal.

Cheddar Broccoli Soup

1 stick butter
1/4 cup flour
1 onion, diced
1 head broccoli, florets chopped and stems peeled and chopped
2 cups chicken broth or stock
2-3 cups half and half
2-3 cups milk
3 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
salt and pepper

 In a large pot add the butter and onions.  Saute for a few minutes until the onions soften.  Add a tsp of salt and pepper.  Add in a heaping 1/4 cup of flour and stir, cooking for about a minute.  Add in the chicken stock and let the mixture come to a boil.  It should thicken up.  Next add in 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of half and half, along with the broccoli florets and stems.  Let everything simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.

Now depending on how thick or thin you like your soup, you can add more milk or half and half until you reached your desired thickness. 

After 20 to 30 minutes, and the broccoli stems are softened, give the soup a taste and adjust the seasonings if need be.  Pour half the soup into a blender and puree or use an immersion blender.  I only blended half the soup and left half of it chunky for some texture.

Add 2-1/2 cups of cheddar cheese, stirring to mix everything together.  Ladle soup into bowls and top with crusty bread and more cheese. Eat hot.

3 Ingredient Pineapple Cobbler

This was really good. I mean reallyyyy goooood.

 Summer is here in Chicago. It's been dreadfully hot lately and I just haven't had it in me to turn on the oven. My poor baking has gone to the way-side while I attempt to remain cool in my poorly-insulated-money-sink-of-an apartment.

It dropped in temperature the other night before bed, so the windows flew open to let the cool breeze circulate, and I decided that it was my chance to make something yummy.

I used canned fruit for this cobbler. You need the juice. But I'm sure frozen berries would work if you added a little liquid.  The awesome thing about this cobbler is you can literally use any kind of fruit or cake mix you want. Peaches, pineapple, apples or pears with white cake, or cherries, raspberries, blackberries with chocolate cake. Mix it up and create something that is perfectly perfect for your own sweet tooth.


Pineapple Cobbler


1-28oz. can pineapple chunks with juice
1 box white cake mix
1 stick unsalted butter, cubed

In a baking dish, dump in the fruit along with the juice.  Next, dump the cake mix on top of the fruit, spreading it out evenly over the top.  Then dot the top with the cubed butter.  Bake cobbler in 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or until it is bubbling and golden brown.  Serve with some whipped cream on top.